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Matthew Pouliot

Strike Zone

July Catcher Rankings

Here is the July rankings update. As always, players are ranked based on how I believe they'll perform in 5x5 scoring over the rest of the season. Included along with the position rankings is an updated top 300 list. I try to list players at the positions at which they're most valuable, so if you can't find that second baseman you're looking for, check shortstop instead.

Little has changed in the top eight here. I still believe in Victor Martinez; he still isn't hitting for average, but the power has come along and the lack of strikeouts gives reason to believe that the average will come up. Others will argue that I should drop Wieters, but I'm not going there. For what it's worth (maybe not much), Wieters has been a bit of a second-half performer in his career. That's atypical of catchers; most play best at the beginning of the season when they're healthy and fade as the nagging injuries pile up (Molina has bucked that trend as well).

The Cubs have resisted the temptation to give Navarro more at-bats at Castillo's expense. Which makes sense; they need to figure out if Castillo is going to be a starting catcher going forward. Navarro might be flipped for a prospect this month. There are plenty of contenders out there who could use a part-time catcher with pop, and while Navarro's .269/.340/.538 line seems like a fluke, he should keep hitting lefties anyway.

The chances of the White Sox making the switch from Flowers to Phegley behind the plate have diminished, though they could eventually decide to have them split time. While Flowers had a decent enough June, Phegley slipped to .267/.318/.467 in Triple-A. Phegley is still hitting a robust .312/.368/.592 with 14 homers for the season.

The Ramon Hernandez signing invites the opportunity for the Blue Jays to send down Arencibia and have Hernandez and Josh Thole share time behind the plate. I'm sure they'd much rather see Arencibia rebound offensively than take that step, but he's been a big liability of late with his .202 average and 50/6 K/BB ratio in 173 at-bats since the beginning of May.

Here is the July rankings update. As always, players are ranked based on how I believe they'll perform in 5x5 scoring over the rest of the season. Included along with the position rankings is an updated top 300 list. I try to list players at the positions at which they're most valuable, so if you can't find that second baseman you're looking for, check shortstop instead.

Little has changed in the top eight here. I still believe in Victor Martinez; he still isn't hitting for average, but the power has come along and the lack of strikeouts gives reason to believe that the average will come up. Others will argue that I should drop Wieters, but I'm not going there. For what it's worth (maybe not much), Wieters has been a bit of a second-half performer in his career. That's atypical of catchers; most play best at the beginning of the season when they're healthy and fade as the nagging injuries pile up (Molina has bucked that trend as well).

The Cubs have resisted the temptation to give Navarro more at-bats at Castillo's expense. Which makes sense; they need to figure out if Castillo is going to be a starting catcher going forward. Navarro might be flipped for a prospect this month. There are plenty of contenders out there who could use a part-time catcher with pop, and while Navarro's .269/.340/.538 line seems like a fluke, he should keep hitting lefties anyway.

The chances of the White Sox making the switch from Flowers to Phegley behind the plate have diminished, though they could eventually decide to have them split time. While Flowers had a decent enough June, Phegley slipped to .267/.318/.467 in Triple-A. Phegley is still hitting a robust .312/.368/.592 with 14 homers for the season.

The Ramon Hernandez signing invites the opportunity for the Blue Jays to send down Arencibia and have Hernandez and Josh Thole share time behind the plate. I'm sure they'd much rather see Arencibia rebound offensively than take that step, but he's been a big liability of late with his .202 average and 50/6 K/BB ratio in 173 at-bats since the beginning of May.